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Mach3 under Vista / Re: Which OS to go with?
« on: January 20, 2014, 04:17:09 AM »
Here is how my system played out. As I said, Mach 3 was operating on the screen but the Shopmaster would not move. I emailed Dan @ Camtronics and he gave me more detailed pin settings to confirm. Same results. He then told me how to trouble shoot the controller. When I would move the power switch to energize, X and A would dither but Y would pulse and move with each pulse. (Z was not hooked up) The servos would lock but would not stay locked when the switch was released to the on position. Popping the cover on the Camtronics controller allows one to see the indicator lights on the Gecko relays for each circuit. They all showed red when powered up but Y and Z stayed red when energized showing a fault in those two circuits. (again, Z is not hooked up). Further inspection showed that I had the power wires (+ &-) switched on the Y servo. That servo had to be removed for shipping and when I installed the motor I miss took a very dark maroon for black and assumed that terminal was ground. Once I switched the wires the whole system worked like a charm. Many thanks to Dan at Camtronics for giving the support needed to a newbie to get setup issues solved. I read many threads on this site and others, each giving a little more knowledge but never quite solving my problem. I hope this will help someone else with set up issues. The Windows 7 32 bit works with out the vista patch. I wanted to use Windows 7 because it is what I have on my other computers. The CNC computer is also used as an online computer in my shop. It is just easier to have the same operating system on all of them. I used the latest version of Mach 3. Remember to check the basics.